(Image credit: IIR/Gemini.)
We’re facing a new longevity reality in America: people are living longer than ever before — a testament to many incredible advances in science, technology and healthcare — but at the same time, the gap between healthspan and lifespan is growing. As a result, we face an urgent question: are we truly prepared to live longer?
According to the Milken Institute’s Longevity Ready: A Systems Approach to Aging Well at Home report, 80 percent of older adults are managing multiple chronic conditions, and the same percentage of 65-year-olds will require some form of care. But there is a growing disconnect between how Americans think about aging and the realities that await many of them. Only 45 percent of those individuals believe they will need care at some point and 58 percent mistakenly believe Medicare will cover the costs.
One in five Americans is 65 years old or older and the U.S. population is projected to become a ‘super-aged’ society by 2030. It’s time for a new, honest conversation about longevity and what it takes to ensure Americans are prepared for not just longer, but healthier and better lives.
Longevity Preparedness
What does aging well really mean? For some, it’s maintaining physical activities. For others, it’s staying socially connected, avoiding major health issues, or being financially prepared for a longer life. Longevity preparedness isn’t just any one of these things on their own. It’s all of them, forming a comprehensive picture of all the dimensions of aging.
John Hancock’s (Boston) Longevity Preparedness Index (LPI)—created in collaboration with the MIT AgeLab—offers a first-of-its-kind benchmark for how ready American adults are to live well in older age across eight key areas: social connection, finance, daily activities, care, home, community, health, and life transitions. The domains are each evaluated on a scale of 0 to 100, along with an overall score that represents the average of the domain scores.
Overall, US adults scored an average of 60 on the LPI across all eight domains, showing the greatest room for improvement in the care (score of 42), home (score of 56), and health (score of 56) domains. However, US adults on average demonstrated strength in the community (score of 70) and social connection (score of 69) domains.
In the Longevity Ready report, the Milken Institute found that only a third of Americans accurately estimate how long a 65-year-old will live, signaling they may be underprepared for the health, financial, home, and community realities of aging.
These findings also reinforce something fundamental to how we think about aging: improving one critical area can have a direct effect on strengthening preparedness overall. For example, when people are financially prepared, they’re more likely to invest in their health, prepare their home for aging in place, and regularly engage in social activities. Similarly, maintaining good health is paramount to how Americans will fare in other key areas, like building strong social connections, engaging in daily activities or entering major life transitions.
The Importance of Care
Health is central to aging well, yet it’s where we find the largest gap between awareness and action.
The American population aged 65+ is projected to grow from 58 million today to 82 million by 2050 and notably one-fifth of an individual’s life is now expected to be lived in a state of illness.
Americans’ LPI scores of 56/100 on health preparedness and 42/100 in care preparedness are jarring. More concerning is that many adults are unsure who will care for them or how they’ll afford that care.
Most Americans want to age in place, but that requires home modifications, systems, and support networks that can accommodate changing needs. According to the Milken Institute, only 10 percent of US homes have accessibility features suitable for older adults and 47 percent of adults aged 50 to 80 have given little to no consideration to home modifications. These conversations may be uncomfortable but are also increasingly urgent.
What’s Next
We’re at a pivotal moment. Longevity is reshaping what it means to live, work, retire, and age in America—and it’s happening faster than most realize. As a life insurer, we believe it’s our responsibility to help people live longer, healthier, better lives.
Preparing for the realities of longer lives will require much more than individual behavior changes. It will take coordinated private‑public efforts—from increasing longevity literacy to strengthening the systems that help aging Americans thrive.
One small but meaningful example is John Hancock’s recently launched initiative in collaboration with the MIT AgeLab, building on the LPI. While the LPI looked at preparedness at the national scale, now individuals have access to personalized longevity preparedness assessment scores to help them understand how well prepared they are to thrive as they age, along with recommended actions on how to improve their readiness across each domain.
Arming individuals with the tools to assess their own longevity preparedness, with tangible actions to help improve it, is a critical step forward. If we approach longevity with intention—taking practical steps today and building systems that reflect the world we’re aging into—we can ensure that longer lives can truly become healthier and better lives.
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